TRILOGY
Marek Balata (Poland) - vocal / Art Lande (USA) - piano
Günter Wehinger (Austria) - flute

The International group TRILOGY skilfully blends European classical and American jazz traditions. Using both their compositional and improvisational talents they have crafted a unique and coherent music that travels through a wide spectrum of sounds, emotions and styles. A rousing blues dissolves into abstract pointillism; a triadic folk melody transforms into 12-tone counterpoint. The group`s 1997 tour in Poland concluded with a brilliant concert broadcast nationally at the Polish Radio Studio in Warsaw. This resulted in the trio`s CD "Trilogy" released in 1998 on the GOWI label in Poland. In April 1999 the group had successful tour in USA (California and Colorado) with special guest Paul McCandless at Yoshi 's - San Francisco Oakland.

Marek Balata (Bah-wah-tah) is probably the premier male vocalist in all of Eastern Europe in the realm of improvised music. His wide ranging creativity has also engaged him deeply in visual arts (graphic design) and theatre. He has performed and recorded with the great Polish jazz musicians: Tomasz Stanko and Zbigniew Namyslowski, and has also performed in Poland with original (USA/PL) formation (vocals and bass only) Cantabile In Jazz featuring Urszula Dudziak, Michele Hendricks, Judy Niemack and Anthony Jackson. Balata has produced a CD of his own compositions entitled "Voice Paintings" (1994), in which he has taken the rich, folkloric roots of his native Krakow and merged them with his considerable understanding of American blues and bebop and the harmonic language of Chopin. He has a daring virtuosity and imagination, a startlingly wide range and flawless intonation. Singing or even rapping in both English and Polish, Balata has a gift for both languages and tone colour.

Günter Wehinger (Vay-hin-gur), although born in Austria where he earned a conservatory degree in 1982, subsequently lived in California and eventually in Switzerland where he currently resides (in Basel). Realising that the musical environment in the provincial north-west Austria could not provide him with all he yearned for artistically, Wehinger moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to study with the great James Newton. After a period in San Francisco, he returned to Europe, studying at Jazz School St. Gallen in Switzerland with Art Lande. He dove into a professional career that has included both jazz and classical performances as well as extensive teaching duties. His classical concerts with pianist Eileen Huang have brought him all over Europe, back to California, and to China. As a jazz musician he has done feature performances with Kenny Werner, the University of Colorado big band in Boulder, Colorado, and has toured extensively with the quartet Zlom in Switzerland (Lande is in this group also). Wehinger`s flute ranges from romantic lyricism to hair-raising multi-phonics, screams and groans. His albums "As Promised" (1993) and "Cry Flute" (1994) were recorded in New York with players such as Mike Cain and Anthony Cox, and feature his own compositions along with those of Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, and Ralph Towner.

Art Lande (Lan-dee) grew up in the fertile jazz soil of New York and San Francisco in the 1960`s. He studied classical music in this period under Joseph Kahn (NBC Symphony pianist). His playing and writing gained international recognition with a 17-year association with ECM records in Germany. His career has involved collaborations with many of the finest musicians in jazz including Gary Peacock, Charlie Haden, Eddie Harris, Joe Henderson, Steve Swallow, Chet Baker and Kenny Wheeler. He has led many bands, recorded innumerable CD`s, and has taught at jazz schools world-wide. Lande has established himself as a creative and innovative voice in jazz as a pianist, drummer, composer, arranger and teacher. Trilogy is a special band; with all their formidable individual abilities and experience, the group members know how to listen. They join their varied perspectives into a unified whole. This is the real joy and reward of hearing the music of Trilogy. /by Art Lande/

Contact / Information:
Poland: MAREK BALATA, tel/fax ++ 48 12 430 62 71
e-mail: marek@balata.art.pl